No doubt this proverb must not be taken to the letter, nevertheless the one who pays always exerts a certain pressure on the one who receives, and for this reason proxenets and inscribed prostitutes have some idea that they form part of an official institution, which raises their position not only in their own eyes but in those of the irreflective masses. I will cite two examples which show how effectively the public organization of a vicious social anomaly confuses ideas in persons of limited intelligence. One of my friends was engaged in combating the official regulation of prostitution. A woman, who misunderstood his object, came to him complaining bitterly of the loose life her daughter was leading, and asked him if he could not help her by placing her in a brothel licensed by the State; she would then be under the care of a paternal government! An old proxenet in Paris requested the authorities to transfer the management of her brothel to her daughter, aged nineteen. Her house, she said, was honest and managed in a loyal and religious spirit; her daughter was capable and initiated into the business and would carry it on in the same irreproachable manner as hitherto. These two examples of ingenuousness are sufficiently characteristic of the morality of the system. In _La Maison Tellier_ Guy de Maupassant has depicted with his masterly pen the psychology of the prostitute, the proxenet, and their clients. For reasons previously mentioned no real confidence can be placed in periodical medical examination of prostitutes; on the contrary it gives the male public a false security. The object of these medical visits is to eliminate diseased women from circulation and compel them to submit to hospital treatment. But any one acquainted with the facts knows that the treatment is illusory. In a short time every woman in a brothel is infected, with very few exceptions. But, on the one hand, the proxenets and the prostitutes have every interest in shortening the time in hospital; and, on the other hand, the visiting doctor, who often lives partly by their fees, is obliged to treat them with respect. [In Paris, the doctors in charge of the inspection of prostitutes are paid by the State, and do not depend on fees from the women.] The treatment of venereal disease being of long duration and very uncertain in its effects, a vicious circle is formed. A conscientious Dutch doctor, Chanfleury van Issjelstein, who attempted to eliminate all infected prostitutes from the brothels, succeeded in almost emptying them, by subjecting the infected women to prolonged treatment in hospital. This led to a revolt which endangered his life, and he had to abandon his scheme.